Legend

So a Five-Way Extreme Rules match to determine who faces Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at the next PPV?

Jokes aside, look like this is Raw's solution to the main event (which likely will take the main event over AJ Styles defending a title against RuRu). Currently, only two of the most popular WWE Superstars (sarcasm) in Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley are the ones who are in, leaving three potential spots open.

So, who do you think will be the final three and who will walk out facing Brock to "possibly" take the Universal Championship off him?

Right now, I'm leaning towards Seth Rollins, possibly Braun Strowman, maybe Finn Balor, although Constable Barron Corbin may fill that spot as well. However, the likely winner to me appears to be THE BIG DAWG as we've known for a long time that they wanted him to beat Brock for the title. However, the biggest wrench in this is that Seth Rollins just recently lost his Intercontinental Championship to Dolph Ziggler. This can be seen as freeing him up to become number one contender and win as they have had Intercontinental Title holder fight for number one contendership before or even be in a title match. Besides, if there is someone they may change course from Roman for, it would be Seth Rollins as he is the most popular babyface on Raw right now, aside from maybe Braun Strowman who is booked more like a cartoon giant rather than a real underdog.

Member

Roman and Lashley are a lock to be in the 5-way. I think Seth will remain in a storyline with Ziggler and McIntyre for now, so he is out. Elias, Finn Balor and Kevin Owen are the other 3 that I think will be in the match. I can't remember the PPV schedule for this year and can't be bothered looking, but if SummerSlam is the next PPV then Roman will win the match. If there is a title match before SummerSlam then Lashley will win.

And regarding Braun, I think he will cash in beforehand for a match at SummerSlam. Either a singles match with Brock or a triple threat with Roman.

Member

Strowman cashin in on Roman is the best way to go..It will get Strowman so much more over as a babyface.. We might have to sit through Brock/Roman one more time, but whatever. It will be worth it if Strowman walks out champion.

Member

Lol Roman wins and faces Brock at summerslam. Roman legit wins after like 11000929291 spears and leap like a freak punches, then Strowman cashes in right after. It seems a little obvious at this point.

The only thing that would make this all more interesting is if after Roman won, 6 days before summerslam, Roman convinces Brock to show up on Raw. Brock shows up and and insane brawl ensues. Kurt then decides to make an impromptu lumberjack match keeping both Brock and Roman in the ring with Most Raw superstars surrounding the ring.

Brock and Roman seem pretty evenly match and beat the shit out of each other. It gets to the point where they both can’t even stand, and all superstars are getting antsy on the outside. Then... Brauns music hits, briefcase in hand, and he B-lines to the ring. The crowd of stars clear for him and they let him into the ring.

He gets in, grabs Brock by the throat and hurls him into a huge powerslam. He grabs Roman and does the same thing. He then grabs Roman and stacks him on top of Brock. He looks down, looks like he’s going to cash in, and then grins, grabs a mic, and says “this is too easy... I want to beat both of you in a real fight...so at summerslam, boys... I’m making this a triple threat match!!!!... oh and since I’m already out here and was looking for a fight...” he looks around the ring at the superstars and says, “let’s give all of you a fight!”

He then leaves the ring and starts a giant brawl, all superstars beating the hell out of each other, as raw goes off the air.

Then at summerslam, we have Braun beat Brock, clean, in a crazy triple threat brawl.

Legend

Strowman cashing in on Roman honestly sounds like it sucks. The moment itself would be awesome but then Roman will have another half-assed title change and nobody wants to see that. :/
I'd rather just let Roman win already. Get it out of the way. No more stories about how Roman wants to ascend to the top of the mountain, please. Just have his conquering moment and move on.
Plus that leaves Strowman in the back with the briefcase where they can do anything they want (and... despite our pessimism I honestly doubt they think Strowman failing the cash in is part of their agenda)

If Seth is in this match he's the only possible winner. And that would be the correct decision, hell I'd rather it be a one on one match after they leaked "Seth vs Lesnar at Summerslam!" before starting the "Roman vs Lesnar!" rumors, just play off them both!

Member

Sorry but the fact that I know exactly how it's going to play out makes it suck. Roman beats Brock, Strowman cashes in. If that happens I won't be surprised so it won't be a good moment. You can see it happening from a mile a way.

Member

On the topic of the match getting cancelled, terrible. Whether it just comes back or not, the kayfabe reason, as far as I've heard, is that Kurt Angle doesn't know if Brock's even going to bother showing up again. Then strip him of the Championship and/or just crown a new one? If Brock's not going to bother showing up to defend it ever, why are you letting him keep it hostage.This is clearly just another transparent attempt at getting Roman cheered when he wins it by making Lesnar's limited appearance seem as damning as possible. The logical position for them to take is to make the Five-Way to crown the new Universal Champion, and then have Lesnar appear at the event after the match to reassert himself as the true dominant champion. Boom, you have the build to SummerSlam, Lesnar being forced to show up because WWE was trying to crown a new champion in his absence. And it even fits with the Roman Reigns story perfectly, since Roman only lost the steel cage match due to the ref making the wrong call, that gives him extra ammo in the feud, and a rightful claim to the championship (making the double titles show as a visual representation of that but also just making the match seem more even, and perhaps Roman's victory is what fuels Lesnar's return). But I suppose if they showed that yes, Lesnar could just get stripped for his actions then Roman won't feel like a hero when he dethrones him. Yuck.

On the note of Strowman cashing in post-match at SummerSlam, yuck to that too. Not only for the reasons Snow mentioned, but because seriously, does Braun Strowman of all people need to be the ceremonial one millionth Money in the Bank winner who does the heel post-match/beatdown cash-in. Isn't he Braun Strowman? If Strowman is leaving SummerSlam with the Universal Championship, he needs to cash-in before the match. Imagine it, JoJo does the ring announcing for Lesnar vs. Reigns, the bell's about to ring but "BRAUUUNNN" plays and Strowman comes out to cash-in. Not only would it be different and fit with Braun's character but it'd save them for repeating the WrestleMania reaction for their main event, and I'm sure they want to avoid that again.

Member

They are making Roman so unlikable. Bitching and moaning. When a baby-face gets screwed they don't moan like a little girl. Thousands of wresters have been screwed out of titles in the past. The commentators never call them the uncrowned champion . Roman didn't even get screwed, he lost on a technicality. Not like he was going to successfully pin Brock.

Legend

From the outside looking in it looks like the main story, be it in kayfabe, us transparently figuring it out, or what they're actually writing, the main event of Extreme Rules is "WWE doesn't have the first fucking clue"

Member

So, apparently Vince had a change of heart on the entire matter (loophole in Brock’s contract my ass) and decided to scrap the initial idea of having this “multi-man” match to determine the number one contender for the Universal Championship. From the looks of it, it seems like he’s more behind the idea of a one on one between Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley, which on paper should be good, yet this entire storyline is being told in the worst of ways.

First of all and as it pertains to Brock Lesnar, him “not showing up” is just a bullshit line fed from WWE in their miserable attempt to get us fans to turn against him because in doing so, their logic is that eventually Roman will get the desired reaction they desperately want. The problem is, this ain’t 1983 or 1990. Once upon a time, back in the day, sure, WWE could easily get away with it but living in a world nowadays in which things like the internet, you tube, numerous podcasts and thousands of websites that report everything wrestling related on a daily basis exist, fans are well aware of what is going on.

In this particular case, this isn’t about Brock Lesnar “not showing up”. Even my little 4 year old nephew knows that Brock has one final date on his contract to fulfill and that date is Summerslam. Whether he signs a new deal with the company or not is something that we will find out sooner or later and not of importance right now anyway. The fact of the matter is, WE KNOW what the deal is behind the scenes which is why the storyline as a whole does not work.

As far as Roman Reigns is concerned, I mentioned this recently and I’ll say it again, I’ve gone past the hating (of the character obviously, not the man) and am more on feeling sorry for the poor way WWE are treating him and booking him. I don’t know if it’s Vince himself or Creative in general that feed him these stupid lines he has to utter every now and then but, my God, I’m even wondering how on earth Roman Reigns himself tolerates this.

Like, how can you possibly come out and talk about management holding you down when you’ve been part of the main event of Wrestlemania (you know, the biggest show, the grandest stage of them all) for four years in a row?

How can you come out and call Brock Lesnar “Vince’s boy” when EVERYONE knows it’s the other way around?

How do you call out Bobby Lashley the other week about his MMA career when the man went 15-2? I ain’t no expert on MMA and don’t follow it one bit but I sure as hell no it takes some serious balls to get in that octagon and compete, let alone have a very neat winning record like Lashley did. Do these people not think before they speak?

See, that’s the problem with Roman Reigns. As I’ve mentioned before on numerous occasions, nobody hates the guy more than the character and when WWE feeds him all these stupid lines, it just makes you wonder “are they really pushing him or trying to destroy him instead”?

Back to the storyline situation, under normal circumstances I’d agree with Snowman100% when noting above that they (WWE) should just get this thing over and done with and give Roman his fucking moment in the sun so we can all finally move on. However, we have certain aspects that need to be taken under consideration, such as the hot crowd in Brooklyn that will surely shit on the entire main event (assuming it will be Brock vs. Roman) and then you have the wildcard called Braun Strowman, current holder of the money in the bank briefcase.

For one, you really can’t have such a big show without one of your biggest attractions, yet on the other hand it really isn’t in Brauns character to take the opportunistic approach, nor does he appear to be one to hold onto the briefcase for too long so a cash in here isn’t out of the question. As a matter of fact, if they were to pull the trigger, I like Mustaphar Reginald’s approach above because it is exactly the type of thing Braun’s character would do.

But while the fans would go home happy, such a scenario would probably bring us back to square one because Roman Reigns would then have the reasoning to talk about how he got screwed over again and blah blah blah…unless…

P.S.: I know it’s a stretch but it’s a thought that crossed my mind: what if the so called “loophole” has to do with Brock perhaps refusing to lay down to Roman Reigns?

We all thought Roman would win at Mania and he didn’t and then we all assumed he’d win at the Greatest Royal Rumble and…he didn’t. Again, I’m really stretching here because eventually Brock will have to do the deed for someone but as absurd as it sounds, it is a thought that crossed my mind for whatever reason…

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